6. Door velen wordt erkend dat er één enige substantie is, welke ook de eerste is, waar vanuit alle dingen zijn. Maar hoedanig die substantie is, weet men niet; men gelooft dat zij zo enkelvoudig is dat niets enkelvoudiger is, en dat dit vergeleken kan worden met een punt, die geen afmeting heeft, en dat vanuit een oneindig aantal zulke punten de vormen van afmeting zijn ontstaan. Maar dit is een begoocheling, afkomstig uit de voorstelling van de ruimte; want vanuit deze voorstelling verschijnt een zodanig kleinste. Niettemin is het de waarheid dat hoe enkelvoudiger en zuiverder iets is, des te meer en des te voller het is. Dit is de oorzaak dat hoe innerlijker enig object wordt beschouwd, des te wonderlijker, volmaakter, en fraaier dingen daarin worden ontwaard; en dat zo dus in de eerste substantie de wonderlijkste, volmaaktste, en fraaiste dingen van alle zijn. Dat dit zo is, komt omdat de eerste substantie vanuit de geestelijke Zon is, welke, zoals is gezegd, uit de Heer is en waarin de Heer is. Die Zon zelf is dus de enige substantie, die omdat zij niet in de ruimte is, het al in alle dingen is, en in het grootste en het kleinste van het geschapen heelal. Daar die Zon de eerste en enige substantie is, vanuit welke alle dingen zijn, volgt dat daarin oneindig meer dingen zijn dan die welke kunnen verschijnen in de daaruit afkomstige substanties, die gesubstantieerde dingen en ten slotte materieel worden genoemd. Dat zij niet in deze kunnen verschijnen, komt omdat zij uit die Zon neerdalen in graden van tweevoudig geslacht, volgens welke alle volmaaktheden afnemen. Vandaar komt het, dat, zoals boven is gezegd, hoe innerlijker iets wordt beschouwd, des te wonderlijker, volmaakter, en fraaier dingen worden ontwaard. Dit is gezegd opdat het bevestigd wordt dat het Goddelijke in een zeker beeld is in al het geschapene, maar dat het minder en minder verschijnt bij het neerdalen door de graden heen, en nog minder wanneer de lagere graad, gescheiden van de hogere graad, door toesluiting wordt verstopt met aardse materie. Maar deze dingen kunnen wel niet anders dan duister schijnen, tenzij men de dingen heeft gelezen en verstaan die in de verhandeling over de ‘Goddelijke Liefde en de Goddelijke Wijsheid’, over de geestelijke Zon, n. 83-172, over de graden, n. 173-281, en over de schepping van het heelal, n. 282-357, zijn aangetoond.

87. 2. Good does not exist by itself, nor truth by itself, but they are everywhere united. Anyone with any sense who tries to form for himself an idea of goodness, finds he cannot do it without adding something that expresses it and presents it to view. Unless something is added, good is a nameless entity. That which expresses it and presents it to view has to do with truth.

Try saying just "good" without at the same time mentioning some particular or other with which it is associated, or define it abstractly, that is, without attaching any additional idea, and you will see that it has no reality, but that it has reality when something is added. If you focus the sight of reason on it, moreover, you will perceive that without any added qualification goodness has no assignable attribute and so no way of being compared, no capacity for being affected, and no character - in a word, no quality.

It is the same with truth if it is referred to without a subject. Educated reason can see that its subject has to do with good.

[2] Instances of goodness are beyond number, however, and each one rises to its highest point and descends to its lowest point as though along the degrees of a scale, changing its name, too, as it varies in its progression and quality. Because of this it is difficult for any but the wise to see the relationship of goodness and truth to things and their union in them. Nevertheless, it is evident from common sense that good does not exist apart from truth, nor truth apart from good, as soon as it is accepted that each and every thing in the universe relates to goodness and truth, as we showed under the previous heading (nos. 84, 85).

[3] That good does not exist by itself nor truth by itself may be illustrated and at the same time attested by various considerations. Take, for example, the following, that there is no essence without a form, and no form without an essence. Good is the essence or being, while truth is what gives form to the essence and expression to the being.

Again, in the human being we find will and intellect. Good has to do with the will, and truth with the intellect. The will does not accomplish anything by itself but through the intellect, nor does the intellect accomplish anything by itself but from the will.

Or again, in the human being there are two sources of physical life, the heart and the lungs. The heart is unable to produce any conscious or active life without the breathing of the lungs, nor are the lungs able to do so without the heart. The heart relates to good, and the breathing of the lungs to truth. There is also a correspondence between them.

[4] Something similar exists in each and every part of the mind and in each and every part of the body in the human being. We do not have the space, however, to present further confirmations here. See instead the same ideas more fully established in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence, nos. 3-26, where these points are explained under the following series of headings:

1. The universe, together with every created thing in it, comes from Divine love through Divine wisdom, or to say the same thing, from Divine good through Divine truth.

2. Divine good and Divine truth emanate from the Lord as a unity.

3. This unity exists in some sort of image in every created thing.

4. Good is not good except to the extent that it is united with truth, and truth is not truth except to the extent that it is united with good.

5. The Lord does not permit anything to be divided; a person must either be in a state of good and at the same time of truth, therefore, or he must be in a state of evil and at the same time of falsity.

Further discussions may be found as well.

339. 6. If a Christian takes more than one wife, he commits not only natural adultery but spiritual adultery as well. The point that a Christian who takes more than one wife commits natural adultery, is according to the Lord's words, namely, that it is not lawful for a man to divorce his wife, because they were created from the beginning to be one flesh, and that whoever divorces his wife without just cause and marries another, commits adultery (Matthew 19:3-11). Still more, then, is this true of one who does not divorce his wife but keeps her and marries another in addition.

The law thus given by the Lord with respect to marriages takes its deeper rationale from spiritual marriage; for whatever the Lord enunciated was in essence spiritual. This is what is meant by His saying:

The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life. (John 6:63)

The spiritual content in the present instance is that polygamous marriage in the Christian world profanes the marriage of the Lord and the church, likewise the marriage between goodness and truth, and moreover the Word, and together with the Word, the church. And profanation of these is spiritual adultery. (To see that profanation of the goodness and truth of the church by abuse of the Word has a correspondence with adultery and so is spiritual adultery, and that falsification of goodness and truth is connected similarly, though in a lesser degree, consult what we demonstrated in The Apocalypse Revealed, no. 134.)

[2] Polygamous marriages in the case of Christians would profane the marriage of the Lord and the church, because there is a correspondence between that Divine marriage and the marriages of Christians (on which subject see nos. 116-131 above ¹ ). This correspondence is entirely lost if one wife is taken in addition to another, and when it is lost the married person is no longer a Christian.

Polygamous marriages in the case of Christians would profane the marriage between goodness and truth, because that spiritual marriage is the origin from which marriages on earth spring; and the marriages of Christians differ from the marriages of other peoples in this, that as good loves truth and truth loves good so as to be one, so husband and wife love each other and are one. Consequently, if a Christian were to add one wife to another, he would sunder that spiritual marriage in him; thus he would profane the origin of his marriage and so commit spiritual adultery. (On the point that marriages on earth spring from the marriage between goodness and truth, see nos. 83-102 above ² .)

A Christian by polygamous marriage would profane the Word and the church, because viewed in itself the Word is a marriage of goodness and truth, and the Church similarly, insofar as it derives from the Word (see above, nos. 128-131).

[3] Now, since a Christian person who knows the Lord is in possession of the Word and has the church from the Lord through the Word, it is apparent that he has a capability and potential beyond that of a non-Christian for being regenerated and thus becoming spiritual, and also for attaining truly conjugial love, inasmuch as the two go together.

Since those Christians who take more than one wife commit not only natural adultery but at the same time spiritual adultery as well, it follows that the damnation of Christian polygamists after death is more severe than the damnation of those who commit only natural adultery. In response to my asking about their condition after death, I received the reply that heaven was totally closed to them, and that they appear in hell as though lying in a tub of warm bathwater. So they appear from a distance, even when standing on their feet and walking. This circumstance befalls them a result of their internal madness, I was told; and some of them are cast into chasms that are located at the boundaries of their worlds. ³

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